Students riding on bus footboard crushed to death
Four students travelling on the footboard of an overcrowded bus were crushed to death when a reversing lorry hit them at Kandanchavadi near Perungudi in suburban Chennai last week.
The students were on their way to write exams. Tragically one of the victims, 17-year-old Vijayan died in the same way as his father had about three years ago in a bus accident.
The bus driver, conductor and lorry driver were arrested.
The incident sparked statewide outrage leading to the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court imposing strict rules. The court demanded safety reports from bus depots and and said bus operators would be punished for overcrowding and footboard travel.
The court also warned students they could face expulsion from schools if they continued to flout rules while travelling in buses. Though police patrol was increased in all districts several students continued to hang on to footboards.
Ramanujam’s birth anniversary observed
The 125th birth anniversary of Srinivasa Ramanujam, a mathematical genius (1887-1920) was celebrated at the Sastra University at his birthplace in Thanjavur, about 400km from Chennai last week.
A two-day conference was held to mark the occasion which was attended by dozens of math scholars from India and abroad. Ramanujam, born into an agricultural family, took to maths at the age of 10. He filled notebooks with extraordinary research on mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series and continued fractions.
Though he did not graduate, Ramanujam shifted to Chennai and continued math research in isolation. While working as an accountant at the Madras Port Trust, he posted his theorems to three scholars at the Cambridge University. Of these, G H Hardy, invited him to England. Ramanujam went to England and became a fellow of Trinity College and Royal Society.
A strict vegetarian, his health failed and he died at the young age of 32 of cold, fever and possible liver infection in Chennai. During his lifetime he compiled nearly 3,900 results most of which were later proved correct.
Stolen bikes abandoned at bus terminus
More than 100 bikes lie abandoned at the busy Koyambedu Bus Terminus in Chennai.
The Times of India reported that the bikes were either stolen or had been used by thieves and abandoned there. Most of the spare parts and tyres of the bikes are missing.
The public blames the police for poor vigilance and not investigating complaints. However the police claimed they did trace the stolen bikes but that their owners were unwilling to take them back, as they had already claimed insurance and bought new vehicles.
Parking lot attendants are also blamed for poor record maintenance.
Girls beaten up for stealing
Three teenage girls were beaten up for stealing money from a tailor’s shop at the crowded Calangute area in Salem last week.
The girls, all school dropouts, stole Rs5,000 from tailor Ahamed’s cash box and escaped.
However Ahamed spotted the same girls the following day at another shop in an adjacent street. He caught them and with the help of two others tied them to an electric pole. Ahamed and his friends then beat up the girls and handed them over to police.
Human right activists condemned this incident and had Ahamed and his friends arrested.
Meanwhile the girls were shifted to a remand home, because their parents did not come to claim them.